Reviews

Richard Kummins, rec.opera.org:

The third installment of DER RINGEN DES NIBELUNGEN premiered in Dallas last night. The city had not seen this opera since 1984, and this listener had not seen it since a Met production in 1986, so it was with great anticipation that we made the 3 ½ hour drive from Houston (whose only foray into the Ring has been a WALKURE in 1959).

The Dallas cast:

Siegfried - George Gray (debut), a veteran of these operas in
San Francisco, Zurich, Arizona
Mime - Thomas Harper (Seattle, Geneve, Deutsche Oper Berlin)
Wanderer - Robert Hale (debut)
Brunnhilde - Frances Ginzer (Canadian soprano, who has sung in
WALKURE and TURANDOT in Dallas)
Erda - Ewa Podles (debut)
Alberich - Roy Stevens
Fafner - Raymond Aceto
Forest Bird - Constance Hauman
Conductor - Graeme Jenkins
Designer, Director - Roberto Oswald

The verdict - An unqualified success, and an often-thrilling evening.

By any measure, SIEGFRIED is a difficult opera to produce, and the biggest difficulty is finding a tenor worthy of the title part (the days of Melchior, Lorenz, and Svanholm, even Hopf, are long gone). George Gray gave it a valiant try as he was obviously suffering through a respiratory problem (one could see him clearing nasty stuff from his nose and throat), which occasioned him to crack a few times. Some of the high notes were little more than desperate attempts to bully his voice to respond, and the great Forging scene lost a lot of its splendor, but, despite his vocal problems and the fact that his physique does not cut a great stage picture of the Aryan superhero, he sang all of it, and didn't wilt for a moment when confronted by a fresh and radiant Brunnhilde after 4 ½ hours. The voice has some metal in it, but it was impossible to fully appreciate him last night. He will be back for GOTTERDAMMERUNG next year.

The sets were traditional, and followed the pattern set in the preceding years' RHEINGOLD and WALKURE. In Act 1, Mime's hovel was an dirty and brown workshop in the forest, with a huge bellows dominating the scene. Act 2 featured a semi-circular rock outcrop with a black hole in center stage for Fafner's lair, and the third act had the traditionally rocky peaks for the Wotans confrontations with Erda and Siegfried, and then the raked mountaintop for the final duet. The most striking moment came in the summoning of Erda, preceded by the Norns, who wove the cords of Fate to make a box around Wotan. The generous casting of Ms. Podles, who obviously relished her costume, which was striking, but which also could have been worn by Madonna to a Leather Ball. She made the most of her scene, and showed her weary exasperation with Wotan for his wimpiness, and for asking such useless questions and disturbing her slumbers. I am not an expert in the science of singing, but it seemd to me that she could not decide which register to use early in her scene - there was a clear break which was distracting, but she did hit and hold some wonderful low notes, and her unique timbre filled the vast hall.

Robert Hale was a sturdy and commanding presence as Wotan - his voice does not have the deep warmth that I like in the part (George London is my standard here), but his every move is deeply convincing, and he was terrific in his scene with Mime in Act 1, and really looked deflated when Siegfried broke his spear in Act 3.

Frances Ginzer gets better with each Ring installment. She went for the Flagstad look - a gorgeous, white gown, and long, flowing blond hair. She has a real Wagnerian sound, but without the bloom on the very top notes. She was a little cautious since she almost slipped and fell on the steeply-raked rock, and then seemed unsteady whenever she went back there. It was a little distracting, among several other distractions in this staging, such as:

** The electric cord which gave power to the sword to simulate the white-hot steel was clearly visible! I thought they had battery-powered swords back then.
** The huge tree trunk log which served as a wall in Mime's abode obviously needed a few seconds to decide if Siegfried had hit it hard enough to split, but finally capitulated.
** Siegfried splits Wotan's spear in the middle of the stage - so the problem is how to get Wotan out of there. In this production, Robert Hale could do little else but pick up the pieces of his spear and walk off the stage - very un-godlike if you ask me.
** Nothung sounded like a dime-store trinket. Each time Siegfried used it to whittle the reed to make the music to attract the bird, he placed it down, and it gave off a tinny rattle. Please guys, Wagner would be very mad over this detail.

The Mime of Thomas Harper could not have bettered, vocally or dramatically. He was all over the stage, and sang his long role with relish. Also noteworthy was the Fafner of Raymond Aceto.

Lastly the dragon was great - an ugly, huge black head, sort of a cross between a crocodile and Katherine Harris, with amplified sound. When Fafner fell, mortally wounded, back into his pit, the giant reappeared for the final words with Siegfried, a nice touch.

Many kudos for Graeme Jenkins, a great Wagnerian in our midst. He started the opera very deliberately, and it was clear that we were to relish every note in this long score. The playing was impressive, not one misstep all evening. Tempi and orchestral balances seemed just right and all the beauty and power of this score rang out. The program notes by Mr. Jenkins are most enlightening, and his concept of each Act of this opera is that there is a progression from darkness to light. The staging and music direction complement this idea perfectly. Even though many in the audience were confused and perhaps bored by this strange opera, there were few defections. After the first act I overheard one group discussing what they had scene, and one of them said "An hour and a half to make a sword?", but they didn't leave.

One final note - the surtitles were quite effective, and there were even a few laughs during the evening, but Wagner's great funny line "Das ist kein man!" was not translated. This had to be deliberate.

There are 3 more performances - Jan 14, 17 and 20 - Go.

On a different note, The "international soprano" Charlotte Church will be making her Houston Symphony debut on March 14, 2001. This is a Subscriber's Special. It has not been announced what she will sing, but, contrary to the local scuttlebutt, the Immolation scene is not planned . This concert will be sponsored by those vocal and musical experts Time Warner and your friendly and non-confrontational Texas Ford Dealers.

Regards,

Richard

Scott Cantrell, Dallas Morning News:

Dallas Opera faithful to Wagner's 'Siegfried'

01/13/2001

By Scott Cantrell / The Dallas Morning News

In the wake of World War II, stage directors and designers have had a field day with The Ring of the Nibelung. We've seen Wagner's quadripartite epic set in spare, abstract space, at a hydroelectric dam and in neon geometry.

The Dallas Opera's Ring cycle, an extensive reworking of a production begun in the early 1980s, is almost quaint in its literalness. But this season's installment, Siegfried, which opened Thursday at Fair Park Music Hall, also betokens a real reverence for the work itself. Director/designer Roberto Oswald isn't out to make points, but to help us through Wagner's sometimes forbidding world of gods and mortals, giants, dwarfs and a dragon.

In Siegfried we see the eponymous hero slay the dragon (the giant Fafner in disguise) and his poisonous guardian, Mime; penetrate the wall of fire surrounding Brünnhilde; and waken the sleeping Valkyrie with a kiss. The opera ends with Siegfried and Brünnhilde in transports of love.

The one oddity in Mr. Oswald's production is the portrayal of the earth goddess Erda: Ewa Podles looks like Queen Victoria done up as a bald dominatrix. And the Jules Verne vision of Wotan's castle Valhalla as a bifurcated tower with ribs isn't entirely convincing. At least in the opening performance, there was too much unwelcome drama as Frances Ginzer's Brünnhilde precariously negotiated a terrain better suited to mountain goats.

The greatest opera houses in the world struggle to fill the vocally formidable roles of Brünnhilde and Siegfried, and in the Dallas production one might prefer another voice in this or that role. (I'd certainly prefer a less vibrant and more reliably tuned Forest Bird than Constance Hauman.) But Jonathan Pell, the Dallas Opera's director of artistic administration, has assembled a cast remarkably consistent in vocal and theatrical prowess.

George Gray's Siegfried can't be called boyish, and the voice has more edge and less depth than might be wished. But he sings securely and ardently, and his transformation from bratty youth to grounded adult is most convincingly done.

If a little less vocally spectacular than James Morris in last season's Die Walküre, Robert Hale sings sumptuously as Wotan (here in disguise as the Wanderer). Thomas Harper's Mime could use a handful of stronger lower notes and less hurrying of the musical pace early on. But he is the conniving dwarf, head to toe, fidgeting, fussing and clambering all over the stage, and his, too, is a powerful vocal performance.

In Walküre Ms. Ginzer was a serviceable but hardly commanding Brünnhilde. In Siegfried she's a knockout, also a little shy on some lower notes but from midrange up a stirring lava flow of tone. Ms. Podles' contralto, with its huge gearshifts between death-by-chocolate head voice and decidedly mannish chest tones, isn't conventionally beautiful, but she'll have every patron on the seat's edge. The roles of Alberich and Fafner are richly filled by, respectively, Roy Stevens and Raymond Aceto.

After beautifully played productions of Wozzeck and The Barber of Seville, the Dallas Opera Orchestra sounded noticeably less refined Thursday, with persistent tuning problems in the winds. But, after taking a little while to find a rhythmic focus, music director Graeme Jenkins conducted with a fine balance of head and heart.

Tune into TXCN at 4 p.m. Thursday when Scott Cantrell talks about Siegfried on Texas Now.

PERFORMANCE INFORMATION

The Dallas Opera continues its presentation of Wagner's Siegfried at 1 p.m. Sunday and 6:30 p.m. Wednesday and Jan. 20 at Fair Park Music Hall. Tickets $19 to $189. Call 214-443-1000, or go to www.dallasopera.org.